Mirrored not Aspirational

So we've taken to binge watching new sitcoms (thanks Hulu). Lately we've been into The Mick, about a mess of woman come to look after her rich sister's kids, Fresh off the Boat, about an Asian family in America, and Speechless. 

Now Speechless is interesting, it's about a messy family with a (I dunno what's the word, special needs, disabled? Pick one) child. Minnie Driver plays the mom and she's an overbearing aggressive alpha-female. But that's not all that's wrong with this family. They're constantly fighting with the school district, we have some experience with that. After they move into a new neighborhood the husband warns everybody that the house won't get fixed, the lawn won't get mowed. The daughter says, echoing dad, 'Where not jerks.We're idiots.'

Actually Minnie Driver's mom character reminds us of Lois from Malcolm in the Middle. Of course that blessed show revolved around Lois and Hal and their four hellion boys. Malcolm is a genius. Reece is border-line nuts. Francis is in military school, Dewey is just weird. MitM debuted in 2000 after a decade of high drama teen shows like 90210 (it makes us sick to write that zip. Never watched an episode, though we totally wanted to bone Shannon Daugherty [TMI-ed])

In their hangups and psychosis the MitM family was more realistic than anything on TV at the time. In essence MitM broke the TV tropes. This ain't Gilmore Girls 'Oh mother, I just don't know who I want to go to the prom with.'

But MitM wasn't the first trope-breaker. That honor belongs to Married with Children, no explanation required, and of course the ultimate sit-com family bashers, The Simpsons. We haven't watched the show since 1997 and think its unwatchable now. But it's just part of the TV landscape today. In its time The Simpsons was very controversial. Drug Czar William Bennett warned us all about watching The Simpsons. Our high school banned Bart Simpson T-shirts.

Before these groundbreaking shows sitcoms were about normal family's (for the most, part readers are welcome to point out exceptions in comments). We're talking Father Knows Best, Dick Van Dyke, The Brady Bunch, Cosby. These were aspirational. Everybody wanted Bill Cosby to be their dad.

So what happened?

We suppose TV just couldn't play to our aspirations forever. Of course TV, such as it is today, can't go on mirroring us forever. We suspect soon there will be a sit-com where everything is perfect.

How ground breaking.